Overpass Democracy

Remember the weeks and months after September 11, when it was rare to drive beneath a highway overpass without seeing a U.S. Flag? Well, there have been recent anecdotal accounts of a different flavor of highway decoration, but I hadn't seen evidence of anything similar around here until last night, when we saw an crudely-made, simple-yet-beautiful Impeach Bush poster hanging on an overpass above I-83. Congressional Democrats have publicly stated that impeachment is "off the table", because they're afraid of a political backlash. But with two-thirds of the country disapproving of this administration, exactly where would a measurable backlash come from? Looks to be another case of political will lagging far behind public opinion.

Police Report for July 20, 2007

I didn't think it possible, but the Police - in concert!!! - actually exceeded my expectations. All 3 of them sounded fantastic. They sounded like they just picked up right where they left off, like the Synchronicity tour was a few months ago and this was just the next leg.

Gordon's (aka Sting's - we're close, so I can call him Gordon) vocals were pretty damn good, even on the high notes (still!). He broke out some kind of pan flute for the beginning of Walking in Your Footsteps, but other than that just stuck with the bass, which had a very heavy sound - I guess that's what's required of their catalog, when the melody is so often in the bass line?

Andy Summers (the guitarist) really shines in concert, much more so than on the studio tracks, because he has so much more latitude. His solos are more elaborate, and he's not just relegated to playing rhythm guitar on ska- or reggae-beat songs.

Stewart Copeland is the Greatest Drummer in the History of Rock. Period. I don't know what else to say. I know Sting writes the songs, but I don't know where the Police would be, how well-defined their sound would be, without Stewart. He was simply awesome. His drum kit was massive, and then he had an additional array of percussion instruments (half of which I couldn't name, but which did include timpani, steel drums, a huge gong, and all sorts of chime and cymbal-type thingees) upon which he also kicked much ass.

Highlights - the quite-enthusiastic crowd reaction to Every Little Thing She Does is Magic (evidently a fan favorite), the percussion work on Wrapped Around Your Finger, and the overall massive arena-rock sound of two of the encore numbers, So Lonely and King of Pain.

I can't believe that we get to see them again in a few weeks. We're not worthy!!

[Edit: Here's a review of the show from the Sun music critic, Rashod Ollison.]

A Tale of Two Weekends

First, the Bad: Taking 3.5-to-4 hours to drive the 90 miles from Baltimore to Hershey, PA for the Police show. Jenny having to go into the office both Saturday and Sunday. The HP critical BIOS update that killed the motherboard (I'm finished with buying computers, I'll just build my own from now on unless it's a laptop; fewer headaches, believe it or not). Me wasting time on a beautiful day on Saturday on the fool's errand of trying to recover the BIOS.

Ah, but there was Good: The Police, LIVE! - review forthcoming. Cal's whiskey-tasting event, which was much fun. The weather, which didn't suck, for once.

Brian May, Back to School

Apparently the Queen founder, guitarist, and songwriter has dusted off his 30+ year-old doctoral thesis in astrophysics, and could get his PhD next year. Kinda neat. And yet, I wonder how it is that some people get all the brains and the creativity. It hardly seems fair, does it?

Geekotourism

Here's a brief vacation guide for your inner geek. I would argue that a trip to CERN is easily the geekiest on this list. As for me, it would be a tough choice between the New Zealand LOTR locations and Chernobyl. But if I honestly had to choose between nuclear radiation and Hobbits, I'd probably pick Hobbits nine times out of ten.

High Definition

To go with our new HDTV (Panasonic plasma) that was delivered Friday, we switched from DirecTV to the other satellite provider, Dish Network. They have more HD channels - for now - plus are a few bucks cheaper per month. But we found one caveat - and we think Dish Network was slightly misleading about it when Jenny set up everything over the phone - they don't offer local broadcast channels in HD, we need a separate antenna for that. We weren't too happy when we discovered that, but I still think we would have switched to Dish even if we had known that in advance. Besides, we can always switch back (in 18 months) if we really want to. Then again, in 18 months, it will be 2009 and the HDTV landscape is bound to look very different.